Happy Ostara

The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans. It consists of either four or eight festivals: either the solstices and equinoxes, known as the “quarter days”, or the four midpoints between, known as the “cross quarter days”; syncretic traditions like Wicca often celebrate all eight festivals.

The festivals celebrated by differing sects of modern Paganism can vary considerably in name and date. Observing the cycle of the seasons has been important to many people, both ancient and modern, and many contemporary Pagan festivals are based to varying degrees on folk traditions.

Vernal Equinox (Ostara)

The vernal equinox, in Germanic traditions often called Ostara, a word invented by Grimm in the 1840s[citation needed], inaugurates the new year on the Zodiacal calendar. From this point on, days are longer than the nights. Many mythologies[who?] regard this as the time of rebirth or return for vegetation gods (e.g. Attis) and celebrate the spring equinox as a time of great fertility.

Egg decorating is a very common tradition in vernal equinox celebrations throughout Europe.

Germanic pagans dedicate the holiday to their fertility goddess Ostara (the eastern star). She is notably associated with the fecund symbols of the hare and egg. Her teutonic name may be etymological ancestor of the words east and Easter.

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